A partial summary for those too lazy to open the link:. . .The arrival of a new prisoner called Kinna leads to Magus escaping and learning to control his new powers, known as chroma magic. Chroma magic allows absorption and manipulation of powers from the colors green, red, and purple. Players will be able to direct the evolution of Magus' powers, choosing to specialize in one type of magic or become a jack-of-all-trades.

Siliconera expanded a bit and said that he absorbs powers from the current environment (and also that it's running on the Unreal 3 engine).

I think it sounds interesting, and definitely means that the environment will be a big factor. That is, if everything works the way the developers plan for it to.

I was working on a game that was built around the concept of pulling power from the environment to turn a weakling into a temporary hero.

MOTHERFUCKER!!!

Oh well, at least from the sound of it I can point to them swiping the idea from either FFVIII or Quest 64 (even if everybody else is going to point at my swiping the idea from Magus now). Plus, I still have the grid based movement and time based objective elements to work with.

Well, if it's any consolation, I liked Quest 64.I don't think I've ever seen an RPG that was as simple, yet, I didn't mind it.It was just like taking a nap in the shade on a warm summer day while the cicadas chirp softly in the distance.

I like Aksys but I'm not going to support crap just because it has their name on it...

Edit: Just for the heck of it I checked out the game's website. Even that seems half-assed...

From the Gameplay section:

Quote

There are three different kinds of magic present in the game: red, blue, and green.

Each magic type has a Basic spell and a much more powerful Strong spell; alternate between the two depending on the situation to destroy all of those foolish enough to stand against you.

....

You can absorb magic from the colored gems and stones scattered throughout the world.

Once your powers are charged, you can go on the offensive. Basic magic spells do the least amount of damage to enemies, but do not use Mana.

Strong magic spells do significantly more damage than the Basic spells. While they do not use Mana either, these types of spells take longer to cast and have a cool down period before they can be used again.

Really, the idea sounds incredibly promising and I'd like to support Aksys, but I think I'm going to need more convincing.

If there is, I wouldn't be surprised if you can choose how far you can turn this guy's 5-o'clock shadow into a full on stubble. The armor will of course have a spikes-to-defense ratio where the more spikes and gold lines it has, the better the defense rating. Bonus points if the shoulders and leggings get big enough to look like it came from Warhammer 40k.

I like Aksys but I'm not going to support crap just because it has their name on it...

Edit: Just for the heck of it I checked out the game's website. Even that seems half-assed...

From the Gameplay section:

Quote

There are three different kinds of magic present in the game: red, blue, and green.

Each magic type has a Basic spell and a much more powerful Strong spell; alternate between the two depending on the situation to destroy all of those foolish enough to stand against you.

....

You can absorb magic from the colored gems and stones scattered throughout the world.

Once your powers are charged, you can go on the offensive. Basic magic spells do the least amount of damage to enemies, but do not use Mana.

Strong magic spells do significantly more damage than the Basic spells. While they do not use Mana either, these types of spells take longer to cast and have a cool down period before they can be used again.